Gas grills have become very prominent in outdoor cooking and barbecuing. Generally, a gas grill will include a cooking vessel containing one or more gas burners and a cooking plate or grill situated above the burners to support the food during cooking. In order to evenly distribute heat generated by the gas burners, lava rock has commonly been placed between the gas burners and the cooking plate or grill.
Lava rock is a porous heat absorbing material and absorbs and spreads the heat from the gas burners to provide a more even distribution of heat to the cooking grill or plate above. The lava rock is generally supported above the burners by a grid structure.
Unfortunately, greases dripping from the food being cooked on the cooking grill tend to drip onto the lava rock and ignite. The resultant flare-ups can be dangerous and can burn the food being cooked. Further, lava rock is porous and therefore absorbs the greases, which drip from the food. As a result, the lava rock is very hard to clean. Finally, because lava rock absorbs heat, the time for heating up the lava rock is lengthy and after the gas burners have been turned off the lava rock stays hot for a long period of time.
In solving the problems with use of lava rock in gas grills, it is known to provide a generally inverted V-shaped member, known as a sear bar, positioned above the gas burners. U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,853 (Stephen et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,964 (Lohmeyer et al) disclose the use of a plurality of inverted V-shaped members positioned above the gas burners. The plurality of V-shaped members mean that the greases dripping from the food being cooked fall onto the V-shaped members and are evaporated without uncontrolled flare-ups during cooking. U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,964 discloses the use of a second set of inverted V-shaped members positioned transversely to the first set of inverted V-shaped members. This further minimizes flare-ups, but creates a bulky sear bar arrangement.
It is an object of the invention to provide a sear bar which will overcome or substantially ameliorate at least of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to least provide an alternative.